3PMjournal_2010s2

3pm Journal of Digital Research & Publishing
Transforming blogs into books
By Sophie Bosch
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to explore the perception of the blog as a means of communication and the
very recent trend of many blogs of all types — cultural, political and social — being published as books.
The article will also explore the transience of the content being communicated in a blog as opposed to
the permanent and concrete nature of the content being communicated in a book, that is, the integrity of
books as a body of information as opposed to the ever-changing format of and information communicated
by a blog.
There are several case studies that are very relevant to this trend particularly in the field of fashion and
design. Fashion blogs with a focus on street photography or photographs of people’s everyday life have
been immensely successful and popular due to their subject matter being very different to traditional
fashion magazines and publications that have had to meet market demands. Therefore, the content and
demand for content evolves more organically from what visitors to and commentators on the blog are
interested in. As a result, if the individual who has started the blog decides to edit and select blog posts
and turn them into material for print and publication, a market already exists for this material to be sold
to, especially if the blog has a large following. Specific examples include The Sartorialist (2009) by Scott
Schuman, Facehunter (2010) by Yvan Rodic and The Selby is in Your Place (2010) by Todd Selby.
Keywords
Books into blogs • Digital media • Publishing • New media technology • blogs •
The Sartorialist • FaCehunter • TODD SELBY
There has been a recent trend of blogs, a relatively new digital technology or format being
turned into books, a form of content delivery with a long history that is entrenched in and
bound up with forms of life and social practice. This trend exemplifies a technological
opportunity that can and has in some instances changed the way we write in the digital
age but that also complements a pre-existing form of content delivery. This is a result of
the advantages of successful bloggers being able to select and edit the best blog entries for
print and publication as a more integral whole and also become authors of books. Books
are an appealing medium for authors of blogs to preserve authorial dominance through
publication in print. Books also have the structural advantage over blog commentary
because the information can be arranged according to theme or category rather than
mere sequence and also have the attraction for authors as being a simpler one-way
communication and an object documenting salient parts of a blogsí archive or elaborating
further on generally informal and short posts. There is also still a great deal of prestige
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